Oil testing

[QBhoy]

I agree with kashurst. You’d just worry yourself daft and over analyse. Just change the oil at least once a year with good oil and filters.
But...if you’re fussy and want an extra worry in your life...use intertek. Best in the business, but obviously you’ll need to build up a database and history before trends can be analysed

 

[Anders_P42]

Cut the used oil filter open, if there are metal partials start planning a rebuild.

 

[petem]

Having started this thread and read the various comments, I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. The boat achieves a good top speed, it starts on the button and doesn't smoke. I trust the guys that did the latest service and the previous one so have no concerns about them not changing the oil. And what would I do if the results gave some high readings? Would it really prompt me to have the engines stripped down or would it just be another thing to keep me awake at night? It certainly wouldn't promt me to sell the boat.

And at the end of the day, if I ever need a re-build what would it cost £10k? Split three ways isn't a life changing amount for me.

 

[Assassin]

Cut the used oil filter open, if there are metal partials start planning a rebuild.

They use a special cutter to cut them open so no metal particles are added as they only want the filter paper to test.

 

[Scubadoo]

Oil sampling is an interesting one and one which is extremely beneficial to industry but for boats it is of limited value, and of course there are the misconceptions bandied about.

The crack about cheap oils! really, make of oil is unimportant and expensive oils are often no different to cheap oils with the only difference being the amount of profit you put into a corporations pocket if you are silly enough to pay for expensive brand names as often other companies make oil for the top names and they do very little to it, who remembers Mobil 1 coming out, launched to a furore of acclaim and the claim was that it was fully synthetic, but did Mobil produce it? actually it was produce by Comma in Gravesend and sent to Mobil where they added two components to it. Comma produced their version of it and it was exactly the same except it was half the price.

Oil is about specifications and nothing else, getting the correct specification is crucial to engine life, irrespective of the label it wears.

Cold or warm? it doesn't matter as oil holds particles in suspension and as long as the engine is regularly run it will circulate the particles through the filter which will catch them and filter them out. In reality it is more about the engines being run in a working condition where they are run for a prolonged period, under load, as this heats the oil to make it effective and the heat boils off the water it has in suspension and circulates the oil to all parts of the engine so its additives can work to protect the engine. Why do you think engines use a lay up oil when they are to be stood for prolonged periods, instead of engine oil.

Most sampling does not include water content and condition as identifying water is expensive to do and there are many different types of it in any marine engine, therefore most of the samplers who do a general water content test which includes all waters, which is misleading.

More appropriate is a filter test as this gives a much more accurate reading of the samples and very few people do this dur toe cost of cracking the filter housing and extracting the filter element and scraping the filtered material from it.

Okay so all oil is not produce from the vendor like Volvo, it's all about specification, isn't it the additives that the vendor specifies that makes the difference to how engine / outdrive is protected (better), kind of their secret recipe. Example Volvo outdrive oil may handle water ingress better because of additives compared to other same spec oils. I know nothing about oils but just a thought, interested in your opinion.